6,000 Rover workers face redundancy

The Rover saga looks like it's coming to an end with the Guardian reporting 6,000 reduncancies.

What makes me so angry about this is the persistent lack of vision from both Labour and Tory governments. Rather than using state subsidies to prop up industries based on obselete technology we could have been investing in the technologies that will dominate the 21st century. Instead Germany and Denmark have stolen a march on us and are now the world leaders in producing solar panels and wind turbines, while we are locked in a race to the bottom trying to compete with the Chinese by cutting jobs and lowering the pay and conditions of those who remain.

If governments of either party had taken the threat of climate change seriously in the 1990s and invested in renewable energy, we would now have profitable manufacturing industries, providing jobs and exports, to take the place of what were once flagship companies like Rover.

British engineering was once the envy of the world and could be again if the government took a long-term view and invested in the kinds of technology that everyone will need if we are to cut energy usage to a sustainable level.

I had hoped that my union the Transport & General Workers Union would be looking to the future, following a commitment from Jack Dromey, when he was standing for his current post of Deputy General Secretary, that the union would work with the Green Party to promote sustainable industry.

However, it seems that the links between the unions and the Labour Party are as strong as ever, no matter how many times Labour betrays the trust of working people in this country.